Yesterday, my friend Emily brought me out for the day and treated me to lunch at Il Pirata. No. We did not fly to Italy for lunch, we travelled to Ballyhackamore, in East Belfast. We eat slowly and talked plenty.

Back in the car, our mystery tour continued.

Some months ago, Emily mentioned a sculpture that whetted my appetite and I was anxious to see it for myself. Yesterday was the perfect occasion and I was introduced to the work of two wonderful creative souls.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I will introduce you to a wonderful sculpture, if I manage to sort my photos. The second piece should be ready for Wednesday. The latter was right up my street and I fell deeply in love with the work.

I suddenly realised about mid morning today that the air bubble in my eye had disappeared. I was like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Yes. I can see clearly, but I am limiting my time at the laptop for a few more day.

Slowly, very slowly I will get back to my routine of blog reading. Again I plead for your patience.

Ramana was feeling playful the other day and invited his readers to join in this game:

Every answer must start with the first letter of your first name:

First name: Marie
An animal: Mink
A girl’s name: Muriel
A boys name: Michael
A colour: Magenta
A place: Melbourne
A book: Machine Embroidery
A movie: Memento
A drink: Martini
A precious stone: Moldavite
A type of food: Macaroon
An occupation: Metallurgist
An illness: Meningitis
An emotion: Merry – with or without wine! 😛
Something you wear: Mules
A piece of furniture: Mirror
Something in the bathroom: Moisturiser
A reason to be late: Major accident. I did want to say death, but that does not begin with M!
Something you shout out: Magnifique!

Al’s comment yesterday: Just be thankful it wasn’t Willard McBane, set me on a trail of reminiscence to interesting calls…..

I once found a message on my phone from a withheld number asking me to collect the children from school!

No names of the children or name of the school was mentioned, so there was nothing I could do. I hope they are not still waiting.

*<*>*

On a bright summer evening, I answered a call to my cell phone. The gentleman caller told me that my taxi was waiting outside. I was looking out the picture window of my living room as I answered the call. There were no cars about. Not on the road or in my driveway!

The voice and accent, told me the caller came from the North East of England. I was in one of those moods…. Ready for some fun.

“I don’t see you outside?” I said.

“I am in the car park round the back, where taxis usually park” He replied.

“There is no car park outside this window or around the back. Where exactly are you?

“The Croxdale Inn, Front Street, Croxdale!

“Is that in County Durham?”

“Yes!” He was getting a little frustrated now.

“Well, I am sorry to say that I am nowhere near Croxdale, County Durham. I live in and am speaking from County Antrim, Northern Ireland.”

The line went dead!

*<*>*

One day back in my childhood while I was helping mammy in the kitchen, she went to answer the phone. This took place back in the days before we had computers or indeed a television! We children needed to provide our own entertainment, especially on a wet day.

The call was short, but mammy came back to the kitchen laughing heartily. A young lad, no doubt messing about on his parents phone by randomly dialling numbers.

While they baked, I showered and made myself beautiful prepared for the day. As I finished breakfast, the phone calls began… at one stage there were toyboys on the landline, the mobile and on Skype all vying for my attention. Don’t tell them. I didn’t. You know they all think they hold the number one spot!

My date for morning coffee had to be posponed until today (Wednesday), so one of the cakes will be grand to bring with me and extend the party.

The skies cleared and the sun danced in my honour. The Postie serenaded me on the doorstep and the window cleaner brightened my world even more. A day not to be wasted, so I headed out in search of fun,

Carrickfergus Harbour

Look how smooth the water was.

I found a Toyboy

I found a Toyboy

Brendan was on holiday from the US with his mum and aunt. I met them at the Castle taking photos… you know the routine

“I’ll take one of you two, then you can take one of us and….!”

I approached and asked “Would you like one of…..

A chorus of “Oh yes please!”, came back before I finished the sentence, and I was handed an iPad.

I took several at different angles to make sure they had a worthwhile selection.

Job done, I asked for payment…

Well it was my birthday and a photo with a Toyboy was not much to ask, was it? I handed over my smart phone and Brendan’s mum took the photos, then followed hugs and another rendition of Happy Birthday. They were next headed for Ballycastle and invited me to join them. I had to decline the invitation, so we said farewell and I headed off for my walk along the promenade.

I had not gone too far when there was loud tooting of a car horn. Turning round I saw my new found friends driving along Marine Highway with arms outstreched from every window of their car, singing Happy Birthday to me!

The remainder of the day can be found in the slide show.

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Barbara, I was just about to light the candle on my cake when the phone rang, it was your dad. Growing up we always shared our birthdays, his being two days before mine, so he sang Happy Birthday as I blew out the candle!

For all my knitting friends, I found the extreme knitting at Parlour Yarns, Carrickfergus,they do have a Facebook Page. The piece was sitting in a basket with an invitation to knit a few stitches, a row or half the rug! It was very heavy, the yarn was carpet wool in four colours with two strands of each colour. You would need a tub of good hand cream to sooth the fingers after working on it for any length of time. I once used carpet thrums to make a 10 ft X 6 ft Mister Men rug for my kitchen floor. It was back in the day when I had a little doll to play with – then she grew up and ran away for her own adventure!!!!! I do love you Elly, REALLY!

In all I had a very good day. Thank you to all who played any part in my celebration, with calls, texts, postings, cards and song singing.

You all rock.

UPDATE: What a difference a day makes:

The Sky has a hangover today

We are back to whistling winds and driving rain. Did yesterday really happen? Was I dreaming?

Photographer Roy McKeown bought the derelict Raceview Woollen Mill set in 16 acres in Broughshane – “Garden Village of Ulster”. It was destined for demolition, but rather than demolish it, Roy wanted to create a “village within a village,” featuring a mixture of housing, enterprise units and hospitality. Thus using the site to generate around 100 jobs and draw tourists to the village.

Raceview Mill 20ft turbine photo credit: Belfast Telegraph

This 20ft turbine which once powered the mill has now been sandblasted, cleaned up and painted and been installed at the front of the site as a focal point. Still very much a work in progress, the first phase designed in a similar style to the old mill buildings, provides new workspace for local Art & Craft enterprises. We arrived on a very cold wintery morning to a warm welcome from happy faces beavering away like Santa’s elves at Fiddlesticks Fabrics. It was all part of Free Make & Take Week from Monday to Sunday 1st-7th December.

Janet & GM

We were invited to join in and sew a Christmas decoration, before taking it home as a memento of our visit – Free of charge. Like a naughty school girl, I was so busy chatting, that I brought mine home unfinished, but I have plenty of stuffing for the task and hope to finish it today. We learned that we were a day early for the ‘Winter Wonderland at Raceview Mill’, an event taking place over first two weekends of December. Among the attractions are:

music and entyertainment from top bands such as Pure Blarney until late

Childrens fairground

FREE ENTRY!

I didn’t manage to return the next day, but maybe next weekend…. if my Elly wants to be a child once more! 😉 Fiddlesticks Fabrics is my kind of wonderland, below are some of the photos I took, when not chatting or struggling to thread a needle with invisible thread! This age lark is definitely not for wimps.

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I might be a regular visitor in the year ahead. We eventually adjourned to The Red Brick coffee shop, at Raceview Mill where morning coffee became lunch with wonderful parsnip, celery and apple soup served with wheaten bread, followed by a coffee! Yum, yum, warm tum! I might be a regular visitor in the year ahead to explore the many units that were not ready for business on Friday. Shop fitters were in evidence everywhere, and those open to the public were still in a state of growing into their space. Another attraction will be a riverside path, planted to attract butterflies, connecting with the existing Broughshane buttermilk path. Drum roll please!

Gino Gingerbread

Gino Gingerbread is finished! Now I have a new game to play… What to do with these little buttons:-

Tiny novelty buttons

Spools, safety pins and thimbles. The pack said eighteen pieces. I think I did well. How many can you count?